H Is For Heaven, Hell, And HalfBreeds
by NessieWinsa
Summary: What if we took our Shugo Chara characters and placed them in a new setting and plot? A story about a war between an angelic people and demonic people, and half-breeds between them were executed? Forced to flee, will Shugo Chara repeat itself? All couples
1. Rima: The Start

**Piggy-chan: Heeey all!**

**Rima: Why'd you want to write this kind of violent story? I thought you were into humor!**

**Piggy-chan: I am! I just wanted... to try something new...? It has a bit of violence, language, and sexual content...? Maybe! I dunno! I've never written anything like this before ! I couldn't put it in the summary cuz it was too long...**

**Rima: Uh... I guess so?**

**Piggy-chan: On with the story, you can tell what I was reading/watching to come up with this story ^-^ Take your guess...!**

**Rima: T.T You were reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians again... weren't you?**

**Piggy-chan: N-no! Okay, I was, plus Avatar: the Last Airbender (animation) and my Mythology book...**

**Rima: I thought you were working on your other story!**

**Piggy-chan: I was! I just wanted a break from it and try something different T^T Am I condemed or something?**

**Rima: I wish... Anyways, Piggy-chan owns nothing!**

**Piggy-chan: Piggy-chan DOESN'T own ANYTHING!**

**Rima: Psh, whatever.**

**Piggy-chan: Enjoy!**

_-NW_ :3

* * *

**'H' Is For Heaven, Hell And Half-Breeds**

Chapter One

Rima: The Start

* * *

I glared at the bitch who mocked my fighting skills. I'll show him not to mess with me. I lifted my double broadswords and leapt into action. Up, down, sideways, sliding as I ran to dodge the obstacles and traps on the field. The earth under my feet began to collapse under my feet. With a sword, I shoved it in a tree nearby and swung myself onto the other side. I kept running, leaving the twin of my sword behind. A bolder came rolling down the hill as it shook the ground. I jumped onto a tree on the opposite side and began to climb faster than any tree animal you've ever seen. My life was at stake here, I was willing to take strange measures, wouldn't you have done the same? With the speed I had achieved, I pushed myself off the trunk and sent myself flying towards my victim. I brought my only sword left down with gravity by my side and cut clean through its body.

_Slsss…_

I landed on my feet, turned around to see a dummy on the floor, its sandy guts spilling onto the dirt like an hourglass.

Sensei gave me an approved nod.

"And that," She said in a proud voice, "Is how you take down your enemy. Just as expected of Mashiro-san. I want you all to aim for that goal. It is your expectations."

A heavy, loud bell rang through the arena.

"Class dismissed."

The grade ones nodded respectively and began to whisper among themselves how they'd be better than me one day.

Psh. As if.

My grade packed up their things after the period of gym. I slung my bag over my shoulder and put my swords back in the hilts on my back. As I made my way through the crowd towards the door, everyone glanced my way. Mostly boys who made moon eyes or girls who had evil glints of jealousy. Most of them didn't care. Well, welcome to Discordia. The fact is, people don't usually care unless they're involved somehow.

I walked behind the arena and into the forest where I was supposed to meet my friends. In Discordian schools, the teachers don't care if you wonder off on your own, they don't even care if you skip class. But during the exam, if you can't get over the average, you're screwed. Either you better stop slacking, or they send you out to the colonies.

Once, a very long time ago, there was no such thing as Discordia. In fact, we were one nation on Terra. Terra, our planet, was home to anyone who wanted to settle. The Concordians weren't as impatient with us and we all lived together. Sure, there'd be a few robberies here and there, and then a police man would arrest him, but that was just the way they lived. It seems impossible how our ancestors could have been like that. In Discordia there are no police men. There are executioners, but executions within the cities have died down since the war.

It was a cold night when the Royal Pier was bombed. Millions of people lived near the Pier, some were Discordians, some were Concordians, others were just travelers from other lands. But the bomb killed everyone.

It wasn't hard to distinguish a Discordian from a Concordian. Discordians have a natural evil personality, while a Concordian was the exact opposite. It was a lot like Demons and Angels. And they never were quite accepting of the other, so they had their governments and ways of ruling differently, though they tried many times to cooperate with the other in many different issues.

Immediately, after the bombing, the Concordians' first guesses were the Discordians. They accused them of the bombing, but the Discordians wouldn't listen to their insults for long and argued that it could have been their own clumsiness or a way for them to frame the Discordians. Soon, the government broke in two and the Discordians and Concordians moved away from each other. The Discordians moved to the East while the Concordians moved to the west. A sea divided the two with many islands, some small some large, between them. But the Discordians did not want to leave without a proper settling of the deaths, so a war began.

Because the two had been living together for many years, half-breeds between them were very common, but because they were mixed of the two, they scared the Concordians and angered the Discordians. They could have been spies for the other or infiltrated soldiers. The half-breeds were banished from both sides, and anyone who rebelled were executed or put in jails to rot.

"Rima," I snapped my head in the direction of the voice, instinctively placing a hand on my swords. "Whoa, calm down."

A pink-haired girl with a golden bow hung around her shoulders and a quiver full of arrows emerged from the tree behind me. She had pretty honey-coloured eyes and a basket in her arms.

I sighed with relief. "It's just you, Amu."

She clicked her tongue. "Shame I wasn't one of your fan-boys?"

"No," I said flatly. "I've had enough of them."

"Anyone follow you?"

"You know I would have sliced them in half if they did."

Amu laughed. Her laugh sounded so real and melodic, it was one of the reasons we became friends so quickly. It didn't sound fake at all the way a sensei would laugh at your stupidity or someone would laugh when you tripped. It wasn't hard, or forced or menacing and cold. It sounded real and warm.

"Did you bring lunch?" I asked eagerly and pulled the basket out of her hands. I rushed over to the creek and sat on a stump.

"Wait!" Amu said chasing after me. "You sound like you could eat a horse."

I giggled. It was so much different from our outside characters. I acted like a little cold 'Ice Queen' and Amu put on something the students called 'Cool and Spicy'.

"AMU-CHIII! RIMA-TAAAN!" A voice screamed from behind. Immediately, Amu grabbed my arm and we both dived out of the way. "AHHHH!"

_Splash!_

I got up and went over to the river. "Hey Yaya." I greeted.

"Why did you move out of the way from Yaya's hug?" Yaya pouted, her clothes, brown pig-tails and everything else soaking wet.

"Because you would have brought us down with you," Amu pointed out.

I added, "Like yesterday."

"Oh yeeeah…" Yaya said as if she just searched through her entire memory file in her brain and still couldn't find what happened yesterday. Needless to say, we pulled her out of the creek. Yaya was a year younger than Amu and I, but we were still best friends. Like us, she seemed to have an outside character. You would have to give her weapon, her axe, a lot of credit for it too. While Amu and I acted cold and distant from everyone, Yaya was the exact opposite. She acted crazy and wild. In the arena, boy, you don't even want to be ten meters within her range. She's an amazing destroyer with the power from her overexcitement, powered by sugar in many of her desired candies and snacks. I heard she almost sliced her teacher in half. What a shame, I'm sure her classmates were disappointed.

But in reality, she's just a really excited kid who wants attention. She can be annoying at times, but it's not the bothersome annoying, I actually envy her situation. The teachers just label her as someone who has mental issues but useful in battle. Like us, Yaya is the top in the class with her axe skills.

Another girl with two long blonde pig-tails came out of the bushes with a basket. She had pretty radiant purple eyes that reminded me of butterflies. She was slightly taller than all Amu and much more mature looking. She was two years older than us, but like Yaya, we were best friends because we knew were different from other students in the school. We did well in fighting like a Discordian, yet we felt giddy-ish and had to put up an outside character from our normal one.

"Utau-chan!" Amu waved. Utau hesitated before coming down.

"What's wrong, Utau-chi?" Yaya asked, licking her lips in anticipation when she came across the basket in Utau's hands. "Got fans chasing you about what type of poison you put in your knives?" Utau, like us, was one of the best fighters in the region. She was an expert in knife throwing and poisons. She often blended her talents together which was an instant hit. Her outside character was dangerous and a bit snobbish, but on the inside she was a fun-loving teen. She has a special passion for singing.

"I thought I was being followed." Utau mumbled. Like it was second nature, I put my hands to my swords, Amu to her bow and arrows, Yaya to her axe and Utau reached under her skirt and pulled out a knife.

We all closed our eyes for a few moments, letting the forest whisper to us for intruders. A few songs of birds, the leaves rustling in the wind, the bushes brushing in the breeze, when a sudden snap of a twig alerted us all.

Since the noise came from my side, being closest to it, I ran at full speed and pounced behind a bush to find…

A monkey.

"Whaat?" I stared at the unexpected victim. At least I didn't kill it… not that I would have hesitated! But it was cute…

"Rima-chan!" The monkey said with a smile.

I stared. "What the hell is happening to me…?" I rubbed my eyes. Once, twice, but the monkey just smiled like it knew something I didn't.

"Don't worry, Rima-chan! Everything's alright now, and you don't have to be scared anymore!" The monkey jumped onto my arm and crawled onto my neck.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" I scream, trying to shake the thing off.

But the animal wouldn't come off.

"Please Riima! Stop! I'll cooome off if you liiisten to meee!" It said as I spun around, trying to confuse it. Why hadn't they ever taught us at school what to do when a stubborn monkey got on you?

I stopped.

"Now, get off!" I shrieked.

The thing jumped onto a tree nearby. "You have to let me talk, Rima-chan!"

"Well, you're talking and I don't like it." I paused before thinking asking, "And how do you know my name?"

"Please," The monkey said. "Call me Kusukusu."

I stared. "I-I guess… Kusukusu."

Kusukusu was orange with shades of yellow spots all over her body and green face paint under her eyes shaped like a star and a rain drop.

She hopped down and sighed. "I am not a monkey."

"Liar," I glared. "I know a monkey when I see one."

Kusukusu groaned. "I mean, I'm a species of monkey, but I'm not a normal animal."

"Hmm," I said sarcastically. "If animals can talk, call me crazy, but I don't think you're normal."

She pressed her lips in a thin line, which looked like a pretty normal human behavior if you ask me.

"I'm a Guardian of a Half-Breed."

I blinked. "Half-breed…? Who?"

She smiled a little. "You're not going to report or turn her over, are you?"

"Of course I am!" I said through gritted teeth. "Half-Breeds are threats and spies! I can't allow a spy to walk across these lands or else we could be taken over by those pathetic Concordians!"

Kusukusu's smile got larger. "I assume you would do the same for anyone?"

"Yes," I glared.

"You."

"Me what?"

"You're the Half-Breed."

* * *

After an hour of shrieking, I decided to go back to the spot where the others were and figure everything out. Kusukusu leapt from tree to tree, laughing hysterically. I wasn't entirely convinced that this creature was a guardian of a Half-Breed, especially of her immaturity to everything. In legend, Guardians were created by powerful magicians to protect the Half-Breeds and lead them to safety in the beginning of the war. But I always thought they were stories. Unless monkeys can talk, there must be something weird going on.

I pushed some tree branches out of the way and said, "Sorry I took so long, I found this monkey and it started talking to me. I'm not crazy, seriously…"

I stared at my friends. Each of them had some kind of animal.

"Something's fucking up my head," I muttered.

"Rima-tan, who's that?" Yaya pointed at the monkey beside my feet.

"I'm Kusukusu!" She beamed.

"Aww," Yaya cooed. "She's soo cute!" Like it was the most normal thing in the world. Amu just sweat-dropped and Utau closed her eyes to breath.

"Does anyone know what's going on…?" I asked.

"Well, these things," Amu pointed at some strange looking squirrels, "Told me I was a… a Half-Breed."

"I'm Ran!" A magenta squirrel piped up. She had a pink stripped pattern on her fur and ears shaped like hearts.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Miki," a blue squirrel gave a slight nod of acknowledgment. She had a blue swirl pattern on her fur and ears shaped like spades.

"Hello, I am Suu," A green squirrel bowed formally, but smiled. She had a green cloud pattern on her fur and ears shaped like clovers.

"And last, but certainly not least, Dia~!" A yellow squirrel said dramatically, waving her hands in the air like she was being admired by male squirrels for all I know. She had a yellow checkered pattern on her fur and ears so pointed, they looked like diamonds.

"That's funny," Utau said, not finding it funny at all. "Because these two told me the exact same thing." She pointed at a bat the size of a person's fist, hanging under a tree and a white dove next to the bat.

"Hey there, I'm the mischievous Il," the bat smiled, showing its large fangs.

"And I am the angel's messenger, El!" The dove crooned something similar to a pigeon.

"Same here!" Yaya giggled, pointing at a light pink dormouse, sleeping on her lap.

"Pepe is Pepe," The dormouse murmured sleepily.

Yaya giggled some more. "She's nocturnal! Uh… whatever that means…"

"It means she sleeps during the day and is awake during the night." Utau explained. "I read it once."

That's how you can tell she's weird. No Discordian _reads_ unless their life is on the line.

"So I guess we should explain now, right?" Miki asked.

"Yes," I said, my eyes darkening.

Kusukusu sighed. "You all," she pointed at us, "Aren't Discordian. Not fully anyways. You're half Discordian and half Concordian."

"What about other things, like our parents, I've been with them since I was born." Amu said, crossing her arms.

Il smiled evilly. "that's where the fun part comes. Your real parents were able to smuggle you into families and make them believe that you're one of their children with magic."

"But magic isn't real!" Utau pointed out.

Suu giggled. "That's where you're wrong. Magic is very real. It's what makes us live. Only a true person will realize it when they give up all their beliefs and start fresh will they realize what is within them."

"There's another thing too," El said. "If you can see us, then you're a Half-Blood, because only Half-Bloods can see us. We are half animal, half magical creatures, therefore only a person with magical eyesight can see us."

"And we have this 'Magical Eyesight'?" Yaya asked curiously.

"Yes!" Dia exclaimed. "You are all naturally born with it! We all are magically connected to you by your dreams. We were chosen from millions of Guardians to be your protectors because our puzzle pieces fit!"

"Translation…?" I asked.

"Our interests are so similar," Kusukusu said. "That we become connected through thoughts, spiritually and life and death itself."

"Okay," Utau nodded, leaning against a tree in thought. "What do we need to be protected from?"

"Your people," Ran had a sad face. "The magic only disguises your presence until you realize who you are, and then your people will know. They will try to kill you, but being a Discordian for most of your life, you have trained to fight and know the terrain, people, surroundings and culture to fit in until you can escape."

"Were will Yaya and her friends escape?" Yaya said in alarm.

Suu smiled hopefully. "This is why we were sent now. We were waiting for you all to become mature enough to understand where we were going and not become frightened. We are going to the Wilderness."

Everyone stared at the green squirrel.  
"B-but that's where they d-disposed the b-bodies of the Half-Breeds!" Amu said with wide eyes. She always was afraid of ghosts. "And than some monsters came and ate them!"

Kusukusu giggled. "You Discordians sound so funny! Your rumors have become so large and distorted, I'm sorry, it's too funny!" Kusukusu burst into laughter.

I glared at her. "So, them what happened?"

"The Half-Breeds never died." El said in a sing-song voice. "They simply fell into slumber."

"But they were executed!" Utau exclaimed.

"Not true," Il snickered. "You see, their Guardians life-lines were connected to their partners, so when one died, the dead one could feed off of their partner's wasted energy and still be alive, just unconscious. You would need to kill both to truly dispose of them. Also, one can revive the other, even if they were cut into millions of pieces. The body would just re-configure itself with magic."

Yaya trembled. "Yaya doesn't like to hear about death…"

"Sorry," Miki apologized. "But this is what happened back then."

"Are they still… alive?" Amu stiffened slightly.

"No," Ran said quietly. "Though weapons can not harm them, time eventually will."

"They want to kill you," Il stated darkly, "You have to fight them."

"But if we die, can't you just revive us?" Utau put her hands to her hips.

"Unfortunately," Kusukusu said sheepishly, "We can't really do that yet. We're still young for Guardians. If we had more time, we could have learned a bit more…"

"Rima…?" Amu waved a hand in front of my face. "You okay?"

I looked up at her. "I don't know how to take this." I told her truthfully. "I don't know how to take any of this. It's like having some stranger on the street tell me my life is a lie. Before lunch, I was the best swordsman, or swordswoman, and now… I'm a wanted criminal at fifteen years of age."

"I'm sorry," Kusukusu patted my hand. "Maybe we were too early…"

"You shouldn't have appeared at all!" I slapped her hand away.

"Rima-chan…" Her eyes began to water.

"I sense them…" Pepe mumbled. Yaya looked down at the sleeping dormouse.

"She's right!" Ran yipped. "Pepe has telepathic powers when she's asleep."

I stared. "Who's coming?"

"Discordian executers…" Pepe mumbled before snoring again.

* * *

**Piggy-chan: In case anyone asked, I reseached alot of this. Discordia is the Latin form of Eris, goddess of chaos and discord. Concordia is the Latin form of Harmonia, the goddess of harmony and peace, Greek mythology ^-^**

**Rima: You pretty much created a whole new world here... O.o;;**

**Piggy-chan: So you're immpressed?**

**Rima: No.**

**Piggy-chan: *sad puppy face* Aww... well, next chappie is Nagi's turn~ And this is in Concordia!**

**Nagihiko: Review plz! **

**Rima: *evil glint in her eyes* Finally, I can be his mortal enemy and chop him up in peices and kill him-**

**Piggy-chan: You'll fall in looove~**

**Nagihiko: You're starting to sound like El... even if she is a dove... ^^;;**

_-NW_ :3


	2. Nagihiko: The Start

**Piggy-chan: I'm baack~**

**Rima: Oh God, no...**

**Piggy-chan: Well, that was certinely wecoming T.T**

**Rima: No one said it had to be a warm welcoming...**

**Piggy-chan: Well folks (ugh that sounds so old...), it's Nagihiko and the guys' turn to tell their share of the story! And note; none of the actually swear... cuz they were brought up that way, unlike the girls in Discordia...**

**Rima: Just fucking get on with the story.**

**Piggy-chan: See what I mean? Enjoy!**

**Rima: Piggy-chan owns nothing what-so-friggin'-ever!**

_-NW _:3

* * *

**'H****' Is For Heaven, Hell, and Half-Breeds**

Chapter Two

Nagihiko: The Start

* * *

"And that is how the universe began. Thank you and I hope you enjoyed the explanation."

The teacher smiled warmly and patted my shoulder dismissively as I made my way off the stage.

"That was Fujisaki-san explaining the Big Bang theory. He is one of our best students and will be making his way to become a university professor once he has finished school. Next will be Wataru-san explaining the ecosystems of life."

I sighed as I sat down next to my friends in the auditorium, a rusty copper haired boy, a blonde guy, an emerald green haired boy, and a midnight blue haired guy who put his feet up on the empty chair next to him.

"Hey," Kukai grinned and gave me thumbs up. "I think you did great."

Tadase nodded. "It was very well done."

"Admirable," Kairi commented.

Ikuto just blew some hair out of the way of his face. "It was good."

I sighed. "I don't know, I found it a little… old."

Tadase raised an eye brow. "Old?"

"What do you mean old?" Kukai asked.

I shrugged. "I've been on the stage so many times, just explaining things and all, I just don't feel surprised anymore. It feels… a little bit, you know. Boring."

Kairi looked at me like I had grown an extra head. "Boring?"

Ikuto smirked. "Finally someone's come over their senses."

I furrowed my eye brows. "I'm not saying I don't like school, nor am I going to rebel like you Ikuto, but I just don't find anything special about lecturing a whole school about something people go over everyday. That's all."

Ikuto looked slightly disappointed but kept smirking. "But you are kind of rebelling with hair like yours."

"What about my hair?" I asked.

"Well," Kukai put in, "You're hair is really long, not like anyone I know in school."

"I just refused to cut it," I protested. "That's all."

"Quote the word; Refuse." Ikuto teased.

I frowned at them as they laughed quietly, not wanting to bring attention to us as the presentations went on for a while.

Kukai, my sporty friend, he has the best athletics, or Physical Education, in the entire district. He is captain of many sports and participates in most of them, but he loves soccer the best. He loves ramen and wins against everyone, kinda weird I have to say. He's also a year older than us.

Tadase is the class president and student council president. It's probably because of his natural leadership that sometimes influences him. Not that it's always helpful sometimes he gets full of himself and takes charge of everything. But most of the time he's very kind and respectful to everyone. He loves astronomy and does very well in Social Studies, the study of other cultures and their environments.

I'm pretty good in everything, but I love dance and basketball. I'm probably the only one who can compete with Kukai in basketball. I know dance isn't something I should be guilty about, but in our school, only girls could join dance. I wanted so badly to try, I decided to disguise myself as a girl, and it worked. But I lied to everyone and I promised myself not to do it ever again. So when no one was in the room with me, I danced on my own.

Kairi has got to be the smartest one of us all. I mean, he's a year younger, but in the same grade as us. He loves anything productive, and reads a giant math text book his parents sent him on his fifth birthday. He wears glasses even though he doesn't seem to need them, and also is very respectful to everyone, even people younger than himself.

Then there's Ikuto. Not trying to be mean or anything, but he almost got us in trouble for trying to steal some taiyaki in the market of the school. He excels in music (even though he doesn't look it) and is said to be a master in violin. He's loyal but not always dependable. He has a rebel steak, and the teachers keep an eye on him at all times since the day he came here. Being a Concordian and all, I thought it was strange that he acted like someone from Discordia. But then again, there was something dark in all of us.

Kukai has an over-confident side, like sometimes he takes too many risks and endangers everyone and himself. Tadase once told us he wanted to conquer the world, I had a habit of lying, Kairi wanted to be bold enough to run off and find an adventure and Ikuto kept running away from his mistakes.

None of these things should have applied to a normal Concordian teen, but it did for us. We decided to stick together since we were different and only show our real selves to each other.

I really hate lying, but it's a habit and the only way for me to live my life.

* * *

"Lunch time!" Kukai stretched on a bench in the park.

Kairi chuckled and I took out a fancy paper bag with my homemade food in it.

Kukai grabbed his own lunch and stuffed his face. He paused for a few seconds to let the taste sink into his memories and smiled dreamily.

"There's nothing like Nagihiko's cooking that can make your day lighten up," he sighed as the others agreed.

Ikuto took his cat lunch I made for him (he likes cat food for some reason), jumped on a tree and sat on a branch behind the bench. Tadase just sat like a good boy on the bench and Kairi did the same while Kukai sat on the grass. I joined him.

"Any word from your parents?" I asked them.

Kukai nodded enthusiastically. "Got a letter yesterday."

"My grandmother and mother phoned me this afternoon." Tadase said.

Kairi smiled. "I got a call a week ago, I'm expecting another today."

Ikuto bit another bite out of his fish. "I got an over seas post card from my father and mother."

I smiled. "I got a letter from my mother and Baaya."

All students in Concordia are separated from their parents for safety reasons. If there was another attack from the Discordians, we were safe here because of the force fields. Children were sent to schools to learn and later develop new technology to help the Concordians win the war. Discordian children did the same, but they were taught to fight, show no mercy and were never allowed to contact their parents because it showed weakness. At least those were the rumors.

I felt a little sorry for them, but they're the enemies and we can't say they'd feel the same for us. It's like they have no heart and compassion, what type of people are they?

"Hey," Kukai said suddenly, disrupting the peaceful silence of enjoyment with nature.

"Don't say you're done eating already," Tadase groaned as he looked down at his own food, only half eaten.

Kukai shook his head. "Something in the woods… something moved."

"I believe you are mistaken, Kukai." Kairi said, pushing up his glasses all know-it-all like. "You might be experiencing a slight delusional phenomena which causes you to imagine that there might be 'something' in the forest we, the students, are prohibited to enter."

"In other words; are you sure you saw something in the woods?" I translated.

Kukai looked slightly angry. "I know it might be a squirrel or something, but if you really know me, you'd know I'm not lying. I bet ten bucks that the thing I saw was nothing like a squirrel."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes mentally. Boy, we sure knew Kukai. He'd bet ten bucks that a donkey didn't have a tail and lose. He was just too confident that way.

It seemed like everyone was thinking the same thing, even Kukai because he said, "Okay, so I can get a little excited sometimes—"

"A little? _Sometimes?_" Ikuto interrupted.

"Okay!" Kukai sighed. "Maybe I get really excited a lot of the times, but I'm serious this time!"

We all gave him unenthusiastic and sarcastic looks, until his angered reply came which surprised us.

"Look guys, I know I exaggerate and blow everything, but I frickin' saw something in there! It looked like shadows of… of people. What if we discovered Discordian spies? Don't you want to get to the bottom of this?"

Kairi stretched a smile. Wanting to be an adventurer and all, I expected to see him get in this. "I'm listening…"

"And what about the honor when we return, wouldn't the school treat us like kings?"

Tadase gave up there.

"Ikuto, I bet they'd give us anything we wanted. Like a few, oh I don't know, violin accessories and a certain cat scratching fish pole?"

Ikuto's ears seemed to perk at the sound of that. He started mumbling something about limited edition cat toys and what-not I had no idea about. I could tell this was bringing him over.

"Plus, they might change the rules, you know?" He put an arm around my shoulder. "About guys not being allowed to dance? At least not disguise as a girl."

I started to flush. "H-how do you know about that?"

Kukai grinned. "Oh, I have my ways."

"You saw me!" I guessed.

He put his hands up in surrender. "I was curious about the dance room, so when I was passing by I saw someone who looked a lot like you, and when 'she' was done dancing, _you_ came out of the change rooms. No offence, but you should have a better disguise and be more careful."

"I bet you went there to see girls dance anyways, Kukai." Tadase added.

"Hey! I can't help it!" He defended himself then turned to me. "And Nagihiko?" He gave me a thumbs up. "You make a good girl."

"Fine," I sighed. "I'll go, but please stop telling me these things."

"Yeah!" He hooted. "Let's go!"

It took a while to avoid the teachers roaming around, and finally, when no one was about, we got in the forest.

"I feel terrible," Tadase muttered.

"Oh, we are in so much trouble just for crossing into a bunch of forbidden plants." Ikuto said sarcastically.

Kukai hummed as we hiked through the trees. I seemed to me it was getting darker and darker, not that I was afraid or anything. Just a cob web here and a few giant bugs there, what was there to be afraid of? But if a bunch of killers were here, well, I hadn't written back to my parents yet. I guess I would have to write a note in my pocket so if anyone ever found my body, they could let them know it was all Kukai's fault and maybe they'd sue his family or something. That way, I'd get even with him even after I died. Yupee.

"So…" I said, trying to distract myself. "What exactly are we looking for?"

Kukai shrugged. "How should I know?" Ikuto threw a stone at his head, sending him face-first in a puddle of mud and water. "Ugh, this is disgusting!" Kukai said, spitting out mud, twigs and anything else in the filthy waters. "WHO DID THAT?"

Tadase sighed, Kairi smirked, I snickered and Ikuto whistled away.

"It was you, wasn't it?" Kukai pointed a dirty finger at the cat-like teen.

Ikuto pretended to look surprised. "Who, _me_? Why would I ever do something like that?"

Kukai charged at him and they ended up wrestling each other in the mud and dirty floor of the forest.

_Crack!_

We all turned at the sound. It came from my direction.

"G-guys?" Kukai said quietly. "D-did you hear that?"

We all nodded.

"A squirrel, perhaps…?" Kairi tried to reassure us, but I don't think a squirrel could make a sound like a cracking noise of a broken tree branch. We all backed up until our backs were facing each other, and we did nothing but stare in-front of us.

"It's probably just an animal," Tadase reasoned.

Ikuto nodded with his sarcastic face, yet a little unsure.

"Yes," Kairi insisted, but even he was sweating.

"I'm too young to die," Kukai said, shaking.

"All I have to say is, this is all _your_ fault Kukai." I said, not taking my eyes off of the bush dead ahead of me.

"I-I know," Kukai admitted. "If w-we make it out of here a-alive; I promise we'll never do anything adventurous again!"

"Glad to hear," Tadase replied. I thought I heard Kairi sigh sadly.

Suddenly, a loud roar erupted from the forest, sending birds scattering out of the trees and taking to the sky and small critters scurrying in our direction.

We screamed (minus Ikuto) and I remember us running in different directions from each other, that is, until I smacked into a tree and fainted.

* * *

"Wakey, wakey," I recalled a distant voice tell me. As they talked more, it began to get louder and closer until I realized the person must have been beside me. "I think he is coming to."

"Finally, it's been a long time too. Man, getting rammed into a tree must have done a number on him."

I vaguely squinted my eyes and saw with my blurry vision two shapes above my head. "W-who are you? W-what happened?"

"You hurt yourself, but it's okay now."

"Dude, you hit a tree, are you okay?"

"Yeah," I answered, pulling my heavy body up to a sitting position. I rubbed my eyes and figured a teacher and some students had come to our aid. Maybe some classmates were going to direct me to the nurse's office to fix me up. Boy, was I wrong. I blinked, baffled at what I saw. "Um… mind me asking, what type of mascots are you?"

The crane just giggled and smiled (at least I think it did). "We aren't mascots!"

"Dude," A tiger smiled, showing all of its teeth and fangs. "I'm real. So is she, and we're not costumes."

"Oh," I said. "I wonder what you're mother did during pregnancy. Especially to get deformed like that…"

"We're not humans!" The crane said, a little irritated. "And my mother did nothing unnatural, thank you!"

"Yeah," The tiger agreed. "We're Guardians."

I stared. "What…?" I know it sounded rude, but I wasn't buying any of this mumbo jumbo. Though if it was a prank, it was very good…

"We're Guardians of Half-Breads!" The crane exclaimed, a little too excited.

"There's no such thing as Guardians of Half-Breeds!" I said, backing up a little. "You're just myths! Stories! You're not real, I must be hallucinating."

"Hallucinate this," The tiger said and clawed my leg.

"Ow!" I put my hand to the severe cut on my leg. It was bleeding a brutal blood red, gushing out like fountain. It was disgusting and messy. If I didn't heal this, I would get infection. If I got infection and let it spread, I could die. It stung right to the bone. "Stop it," I stressed, feeling an agonizing pain bore through every muscle in my body. Poison? "I know what you are. You're Discordian spies! But the school will find me and you two! You'll die a horrible—"

"Yeah, yeah," The tiger cut in. "That's why we're not going to kill you."

I thought they might torture me or something, but I felt the stinging start to fade. I looked down at my leg and saw the skin start to grow back and the redness disappear. "What the…?"

"Now do you believe us?" The crane looked at me wistfully. "We'll explain everything, promise."

I just watched the two for a few moments. One thing that struck me; if these two were natural, the tiger would have killed the crane and I'd be dessert. Two; they were both talking. Three; the tiger pulled the flesh off of my leg then healed it without touching me at all. There was something here I wasn't getting. "Alright," I finally agreed.

"Suppose," The crane started. "The stories were real."

"Right, and Guardians were real." The tiger added.

"Okay," I said.

"And there were Half-Breeds living among the Concordians and Discordians."

"And they didn't know it."

I nodded.

"But as they got older, their true natures start to emerge and they found themselves different from the others."

"So Guardians are sent to protect these Half-Breeds and lead them to safety."

I bit my lip. "Fine, so who are these Half-Breeds?"

The two animals glanced at each other, as if mentally agreeing something. "Well, one of the many is here."

"With us right now," The tiger put in.

I had a really bad feeling about this. "W-who?"

"You." They both said in unison.

* * *

It's strange how you have questions in life that you can't answer no matter how much technology you have. No matter how much science proves, it just doesn't seem to have the answers. But on rare occasions, the answers come to you.

"So…" I said as we were walking back to the place where I last saw my friends. "I'm a Half-Breed, but before the government could find my biological parents, they smuggled me into a family I'm not really related to?"

"To protect you," The crane, Temari, said.

"They couldn't let them kill you, Nagihiko." The tiger, Rhythm, told me.

Apparently, they had the same interests as I did. I wonder what they were though…

"I love the art of dance," Temari said, as if reading my mind.

"I beat everyone on the basketball court," The tiger grinned.

Temari was a Red-crowned crane, but an odd shade of purple and amethyst. Rhythm was a liger, a cross between a male lion and female tiger, with purple-ish blue paws and tips of his ears and 'mane' hairs.

I stopped. "A crane… can dance and a tiger—"

"Liger," Rhythm corrected.

"Liger," I said, "can play basketball?"

""Don't think about it," Rhythm said. "It'll get confusing."

Finally, I came to the little clearing where I had last seen the others. I walked to the middle and decided to wait.

"It might take them a while," Temari giggled.

"How do you know every one of my thoughts when I've never asked you?" I exclaimed.

"We're telepathically linked." Rhythm answered.

I didn't know whether to be irritated, sad, surprised or anything else. I just felt unsure of everything.

"Hey Nagihiko!" I turned around to see Kukai come out of the woods with a…Dalmatian dog. It had a green color with a yellow star at one side. "This is Daichi!"

"Yo," The dog grinned. Rhythm walked over and they started having a very intense conversation about sports.

"You—"

"Daichi told me about some pretty weird stuff, but I can't help thinking this is all a dream."

I smiled in agreement.

"Fujisaki-kun! Souma-kun!" Tadase and Kairi came out of the woods with a lion cub (it had a crown on it's head) and a German Shepard with a strange green-ish taint. It had a little knife on it's leather color which looked kind of weird.

"Please stop calling us that," Kukai told him for the trillionth time. "We have names, ya know."

Just then, Ikuto dropped out of the trees with a cat with yellow eyes and fur the same colour as Ikuto's hair.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "Would someone please explain what the heck is going on here?" I exclaimed.

The animals looked at each other.

"I guess the king will have to do that for his subjects," the lion cub sighed.

* * *

It wasn't until we realized it was getting dark that we noticed we skipped half a day of school. But after all that time explaining we were Half-Breeds, it didn't make us feel any better. All our questions had been answered, about our parents, our genes, our personalities, and who the Guardians were. Though it still took some strong believing, I'd have to say this was just _slightly_ possible. In science, everything is proven, we don't trust things without theories and even then, we don't put hopes in false or random guessing. So magic is out of the question, that's why it was hard for us to accept a lot of the things we were taught was phony. The biggest question seemed to ring out to us; what now?

"Once you know about your true identity, the disguise will start to wear off and you won't feel Concordian any longer." Musashi said.

"They will want to stand you on trial, so beware commoners," Kiseki agreed. "They will want to rid of you, so that is why we are getting out before they come aware of your different presence."

"To the… the Wilderness?" Kukai gulped. Rhythm nodded.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, man. Get a hold of yourself.

"But… the story of the man eating monsters…"

"Did we not go over this already?" Temari cut in. "It was distorted so everyone would be afraid to go near."

Yoru nodded. "It was a brilliant plan, by the way. Nya~"

"We just have to get out of here now," Daichi yipped. "Then we can get going—"

"Wow there!" Kukai stopped him. "We have a life here, we have a good reputation, grades, friends, why do we need to leave so soon?"

Suddenly, I could hear people yelling far away.

"_Hey, I'll check this side."_

"_I'll go this way."_

"_They have to be here."_

"_We have to find them!"_

"Doesn't look like you have a choice," Rhythm said as we watched a faint light get closer.

"They might be looking for us," Tadase said. "We might have worried them"

"No," Musashi said in an alarm bark. "They know, they must know! It was too fast, much faster than I predicted!"

"_Don't let them get away!"_

I thought I saw someone holding a gun.

"Fine," I told the Guardians. "We'll come with you."

They all nodded and lead us deeper into the forest, away from the threats. I just really hoped I did the right thing, because there was no turning back.

* * *

**Piggy-chan: How do you like it so far?**

**Rima: It's okay...**

**Piggy-chan: Okay, what's wrong know? *irritated***

**Rima: Just out of curiosity... when am I going to kill him?**

**Piggy-chan: NO, YOU'RE NOT KILLING ANYONE! AND THAT'S FINAL! But I guess you could come close to killing one of them... and if anyone read my other story, 'Masks', I used the same name 'Wataru' for this story too.**

**Rima: You ran out of names-**

**Piggy-chan: Shut up!**

**Rima: Haha, I laugh at you. Plz review! Next time it's back on the girls getting away from the Discordians... and I get to cut Nagihiko's head off!**

**Nagihiko: Aww, you wouldn't Rima-koi~**

**Rima: DON'T FRIGGIN' FLIRT WITH ME!**

**Piggy-chan: I'm going to put so much fluff in this, it won't even be funny!... okay, it is. 'Till next time!**

_-NW _:3


	3. Rima: Stormy Meeting

**Piggy-chan: Sorry it took me so long, I went on a road trip with my family T.T But we went to the sea so it gave me a bit of inspiration and help in the boat scenes, but I'm not a fisher, so I don't think I wrote everything right.**

**Rima: She updated this story cuz she didn't feel like updating the other one.**

**Piggy-chan: I had to do this one before I forgot how to describe the boats and stuff!**

**Rima: Yeah, well, whatever.**

**Piggy-chan: T^T You're just moody because you're going to meet Nagihiko in this chapter.**

**Rima: Am n-not!**

**Nagihiko: Really... *evil perverted smirk***

**Rima: *slaps him* Get AWAY grom me, God damnit!**

**Piggy-chan: Annnd, away we go! I don't own anything, just the story itself. Enjoy!**

_-NW _:3

* * *

**'H' Is For Heaven, Hell, and Half-Breeds**

Chapter Three

Rima: Stormy Meeting

* * *

Okay, what else could go wrong here? So we were being chased through the forest by a group of executioners with weapons as big as a chainsaw, five feet long, with teeth like even smaller deadly blades. Big deal. We've been in worse situations… or not. So I've killed a few people before, but most of them were by accident. Running wasn't exactly something I really wanted to do. Three reasons: One, it's cowardly. B, we can't run forever and will tire out soon enough. And D, I'm just not really good at running. I'm short, so give me a break! Wait, what's after D? Oh well, I never was good with numbers.

"Rima-chan!" Amu called, far, _far_ in front of me. "Hurry!"

"Easy for you to say," I muttered through pants as I tried to catch up.

On and on we raced through the forest, trying to go in a zigzag pattern to avoid flying arrows. The darkness caped around our group like a warm, soft blanket and shielded us from prying eyes, but we knew they were out there, and they knew it too.

We must have run for at least a good solid hour because I felt completely exhausted. When Utau called for a break, my legs collapsed from under me and excruciating pain shot up and down my muscles.

"Are you okay, Rima-tan?" Yaya asked between huffs. I hadn't noticed I was moaning.

I nodded, too out of breath to even whisper. I pulled myself up with the help of a tree, but fell back down.

"Rima!" Utau called, and came back towards me. "Here," She motioned me to get on her back. She leaned down and I placed my arms around her neck. She picked me up with little struggle and we continued on.

"What exactly are we going to do know?" Amu said after a while.

The Guardians were ahead of us (minus Pepe who managed to cling to Yaya's head and sleep throughout the chase) and kept quiet for a few moments. They didn't seem the slightest tired or weak from all the running, as if they were prepared for this.

"We need to get to the docks." Dia answered.

"It would be our best chance." Miki added.

"To get to the Wilderness." Suu said happily.

Ran cheered, "So you can meet your first tests!"

Everyone stopped walking.

"Tests?" Yaya immediately started to sob. "Yaya always fails!"

"What kind of tests are these?" Amu inquired, hands on her hips.

"Oh, nothing to worry about." El crooned. "All will be revealed in the matter of time."

"Right now, let's focus on not getting chopped into pieces." Il told us and flew on.

"Uh oh," Kusukusu mumbled, staring past us and behind into the woods where smoke arose from the trees not far away.

We began to run again and Utau carried me most of the way. I found myself closing my eyes despite the danger we were all in.

* * *

"Rima! Rima, please wake up!" I felt someone shaking me awake. It was bright and sunny, very unlike the darkness in my sleep, so I shielded my face with my hands and mumbled the person to go away. "Rima, we're at sea, please wake up."

"Don't die!" Another voice cried. Die? I recognized Yaya's high pitch shriek.

Abruptly, I sat up and banged my head against something hard and hollow.

"Ow, stupid…" I muttered and squinted in the sunlight. I made out three faces that peered down on mine and bunch of woodland critters. "Who…? Where...?"

"Rima-chan!" A orange monkey jumped on my lap and gave me a hug so tight, it might have broken my rib cage. Who knew monkeys could be so strong? Wait… the monkey just talked to me…

"Oh, fuck." I mumbled and pushed the monkey off. "I'm really dead, or I'm having a _really_ bad nightmare…"

"Rima, we thought you'd never wake up! Remember what happened?" I heard an unmistakably recognizable voice.

"Amu…?" I asked, doubtfully.

"Yes, yes!" The pink-haired girl bobbed her head manically. "Rima… what do you remember?"

I thought for a moment and suddenly everything came flooding in. I told them everything up till the moment I fell asleep.

"Oh thank the beautiful Universe!" Utau began to worship the ceiling of the small cabin we were in.

"What's wrong with her?" I whispered to Yaya and Amu. They paled.

"Well," Yaya said in a small voice. "Utau accidentally hit your head against a really big branch."

An eyebrow rose. "How is that possible when I was on her back?"

"Umm…" Amu hesitated, like telling me would mean the end of the world. "She ducked the branch and forgot you were on her back. You slipped unconscious."

I glanced out a small window of the wooden room and noticed the salty smell of the sea. I pulled myself up from the bed but felt my legs wobble. Amu and Yaya had to help me up so I could stand straight.

"What are you doing?" Amu asked me, helping me take small steps. I felt pretty stupid and handy-cap doing this kind of thing, but I trusted they wouldn't tell anyone.

"I want to go up," and they hoisted me to the deck. The first thing I noticed was blue. Literally, that was the only colour I was seeing except the boat. The sky was blue, the sea was blue, even the clouds were blue… unless there weren't any clouds. But there was a strange dark mist in front of us.

"Hey!" Ran ran to us from a higher deck than the one we were on. "Are you okay Rima-chan?"

I nodded. "I'm fine."

"It's strange that she's not hungry after so many days without food." Miki said from the top where I realized she, and some others were taking the wheel of the boat.

"How many days was I out?" I asked.

Kusukusu tugged at my school uniform which I noticed I hadn't changed out of like my other friends. "Five days."

I almost wanted to march back into the cabin and strangle Utau until her eyeballs popped out of their sockets. Five days! I was disabled for all five freaking days of the week! Wait… sorry, there are eight… no I think six… whatever. But that is way too long! My stomach rumbled. Now that she mentioned it, I was really starved to death.

Yaya handed me a bag of something kind of orange and brown. "Fish!" She cried like it was the most profound thing in the world.

"I see…" I mumbled and grabbed a handful out of the bag. It was rather dry-ish than slimy. "What the hell…?"

"Yaya knows how to dry meats," Utau said when she came up. "Sorry about the unconscious thing." She apologized. Truly, I wanted to forgive her, because she was just dumb like that to be too confident and take things leisurely, but on the other hand, I really felt like wrestling her and pulling an arm off her shoulder.

"Whatever," I replied with food in my mouth. This was actually pretty good for dried up sea guts…

For a few hours, we just hung out and told each other stories about when we were younger.

"Hey, remember when…" We were laughing about different times and it all seemed so distant and small compared to what was happening to us now. I wonder if my pretend parents would ever find out I wasn't their daughter. I was their only child, yet they sent me away to that boarding school to train and fight for the rest of my life. Was it because it was a tradition, or because they didn't care about me? I wonder if my real parents were alive. I wonder if they ever loved me or cared about me. I wondered if they ever bothered to visit me somehow, or how they thought of me as. There were so many things we had to treasure about the past, so many worries about the present and a ton of questions about the future. Was there really enough time for us to find a way out of this confusing mess?

"It's getting dark pretty quick," Utau said after we finished eating some of Yaya's dried fish for dinner. "It looks like it's going to rain…"

It took a few minutes for that news to sink in.

"Oh no!" Amu jumped up. "What if it's a storm?"

Utau and Amu started running around the entire boat when Yaya got up and cleared her throat sharply. "Yaya knows a few things about boats… she took a class on storm safety and got a B."

Utau and Amu looked like they wanted to kill her in a bear hug.

* * *

The boat began to rock uncontrollably and my stomach started to feel all woozy. The sky was pouring down and the tides crashed against the sides of the boat, letting out a strange moaning sound. I just listened to the rumbling sounds of the thunder, watched lightning streak across the sky, the waves pound mercilessly against the fishing boat, and vomited into a metal bucket now and again. I felt absolutely sick to my stomach, out of place, and I'll admit, maybe a little scared. I shouldn't have been here, if I had been a little stronger and not ride on Utau's back, I might have been able to be up on deck with the others and help them. I could faintly hear Yaya shrieking orders at the other two, trying to be louder than the howling winds. I stared at my feet. I was healing, who said I couldn't help the slightest? Maybe if something happened and no one noticed, I could do something.

I adjusted my swords on my back, just precautions.

I climbed back onto the main deck and was immediately hit with a shower of water falling like a waterfall. Yaya was at the wheel, while Amu, Utau and the Guardians scrambled over themselves to help in whatever she told them to do. Adjusting ropes, tightening and loosening the sails, whatever they were doing, it sure looked a lot more than what I was. I looked around to see if there was something I could do when something flying in the air made me look up.

It looked like a rope near the look-out (which was at the very top of the boat) was unraveling itself. No one seemed to notice. It came to my attention that this was something I could do, climbing trees very well, how could this be any different? Apparently, a lot.

I struggled up the ladder-ish rope things. I didn't dare look down because what scared me more then death itself, was heights... and water, and lightning, and small spaces, and the dark, and yeah, you get the point. The wind just howled louder and got stronger the higher I went. The rain soaked me to the bones and made me tremble. The ropes got harder and harder to grasp, but I swear I wasn't going to leave that untied rope until I tied it back together again and proved I didn't need to heal.

I kept going, higher and higher, I lost track of how long it took me to get up there, but it must have been a while, because I started to hear Amu calling. They must have finally discovered I was gone from the cabin.

Below, everyone seemed like a blur because the rain was starting to make my vision misty. I blinked several times and avoided using my hands to wipe the water away, afraid the wind would be able to carry me off.

"Rima!" I heard Amu call.

Yaya shrieked, "Up there!"

"What the hell are you doing, Rima!" Utau yelled.

I finally reached the ropes and tied them in a very strong sailor's knot. I took the same course as Yaya did, but I failed everything but the knot tying exercises. I guess I always had a special way of getting things mangled up. I was done in a few seconds time and smiled at my friends and the Guardians on the deck. I guess I did the wrong thing because suddenly I was aware of how oh-so very, _very_ high I was above the ground.

My legs shook and my hands trembled. I suddenly remembered everything I was afraid of and my grasp weakened on the ropes.

_WHOOSH!_

A wind so much stronger than the others rushed past like a sand storm and I felt my grip start to slip. My heart beated so fast it might have exploded in my chest, I was going to slip!

Another wind came again, and this time, my foot skidded backwards, and I completely lost my balance.

"RIMA!" Amu shrilled in a glass-shattering scream. It made every part of my body flinch and panic arose in my heart.

I was going to die.

Time seemed to slow down.

I remembered fear. As a Discordian, we were to banish that feeling, but all I did was lock it away in a dark room in my heart. I was afraid again. I was scared of everything like in the very beginning.

My fears started on the day that new student came in grade three. He was a new comer, and previously worked on a ship. I didn't like him at first, but we became friends after a while. He liked Amu. He told me he wanted to introduce her to his family. But when I told him we weren't allowed to see them, he begged me to help him. I gave in. Amu, he and I snuck out of the school through the very same forest. We arrived at the docks and found his family. But we didn't know they would be pirates. Pirates were on neither side of the war. They came here and there as they pleased, and because they were easily bribed, both countries exiled them and told them not to interfere.

They wanted to take us with them, but I challenged them to a duel. They laughed and agreed. But there was no way in hell I could defeat them all. I told Amu to run when she got the chance, no matter how badly beaten I was, and through tears, she agreed.

I got kidnapped after I was weakened so roughly my legs couldn't hold my weight. I remembered I became so frightened of things that day. The darkness; which stared back at me with no emotion of pity or sorrow. The lightning; thundered above and scared the shit out of me. Closed and small spaces; I was put in a small trunk, no sky or grassy floor to greet me. Death; I was afraid of death. I didn't want to die. I had the friends I wanted so badly in my life, I just couldn't accept death. But the one fear I was terrified of the most, was trust.

Water met my legs and so forth with the rest of my body. The shrieking got farther and farther away. Fainter and fainter, and soon, all I heard was the thunder booming, the rain pound against my head in the waves, and the salty tides crash against rocks. Wait… rocks?

I concentrated on the sound, but it was hard to do that at the same time as survive the hazards that threatened to kill me and the anxiety that would grip at my heart so tight, it was even hard to keep breathing. I swam to the sound, hoping it would bring me to safety. I fought against nature itself to survive, but my muscles were tiring and I couldn't take anymore of it. The next thing I knew, a huge wave, maybe ten feet high, crashed against me, and everything blurred until it was pitch black.

* * *

I awoke all over again, expecting to be in the after life or something.

I blinked.

"This doesn't look anything like the afterlife." I said and got up in a sitting position. I felt sand beneath me and wiggled my toes in the soft, warm grains of a beach. I had washed up on an island. In the middle of nowhere. Weird.

I picked myself up and dusted the remains of the beach off of my clothes. It wasn't very damp, so I must have been unconscious for a while. Maybe half a day?

I decided to do what a Discordian would do in this situation; I prepared for killing. I needed to survive, so food would be one of the main priorities, and water of course. Shelter would be good too, and later, I'd need to light a fire.

I decided to explore the forest-like jungle further into the island, and soon discovered a cave. I leaned against the side of the cave and took a stone in my hand. With all my might, I threw the stone into the cave and listened. For a few seconds, there was silence and then a thud sound echoed in the cave, rolling, then another thud sound, but quieter, then a spinning, and finally silence. I smiled and walked into the cave. At least there weren't creatures living in the cave.

* * *

So far, I had everything I needed. I got a strange looking chicken, found a hot spring and the cave was good. I had almost finished eating my lunch of fried chicken when I thought I saw a shadow in the forest. It looked large and walked on four feet. I saw the foot prints when exploring and got a slight shiver down my back. I defiantly did not what to meet this thing, judging by the size of the foot print and the red slosh in the middle as if blood was dripping from its mouth.

It started to get dark and I lit a small fire. I poked at the hearth with a small tree branch and thought of my friends back on the boat. They must have thought I was dead when I fell in the sea. They thought I couldn't swim, and in truth I didn't, but somehow I was able to paddle myself afloat. But how I could have lived through something so close to death, I don't know.

Suddenly, I could hear foot steps. They sounded like the owner was in a hurry or running away from something, or simply they spotted me and figured diner was here.

Funny thing is; it's about to become vise-a-versa.

I took my swords and crawled away from the fire, hid near a bush in the shadows. I got ready to slash whatever stupid creature dared to challenge me when suddenly some thing stepped at my side at full speed, tripped, and fell on me.

The weight was pretty heavy, and caught by surprise, I yelped loudly.

"Ow, kami, my ribs." I couldn't rub my sore rib cage because of the weight. All I saw was purple. Literally. It was in my eyes and it was becoming annoying. "Get off, or I'll fucking kill you, you stupid purple creature…"

The purple was brushed out of my eyes, and what stared down at me were the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Two pretty amber orange orbs stared back into my own and my breath caught in my throat for a few seconds.

"I-I'm sorry," a voice apologized and the pretty eyes moved away. In the faint firelight and moonlight, I distinguished this person (not a creature) was a male. He was tall and had long purple hair and amber orange eyes. He bowed his head and said, "I didn't see you, please forgive me." Suddenly, I felt really angry. "It was because—" I cut the boy off by brutally slapping his cheek so hard my hand stung. He stared in the direction I had slapped him in and touched his scarlet cheek.

"If you even _dare_ call me short, I will not hesitate to rip your mouth off and feed your guts to a monster!" I hissed so coldly, he looked like he wanted to run away. He just sat there across from me, still holding his face. He stared at me with his intense orange eyes wide-eyed. I might have shaken him up too hard.

"I-I was going to say because it was really dark out." He said quietly and immediately I felt guilt. He looked at his shoes and I felt heat come to my own face from embarrassment.

"Oh," was the only thing I could say because apologizing was way too hard for me to do.

I noticed some of his clothes were rather strange, like he had just come from a really formal place. He wore a white dress-shirt with a blue-ish grey vest over and brown long jeans, but he looked really dirty and carried a backpack like he didn't know what he was doing. "Does your cheek still hurt?" Which was probably a pretty dumb question, but I couldn't bring myself to say sorry.

He winced from the pain, then smiled at me. What the hell?

"Not that much," he laughed. Liar.

I bit my lip. "I didn't mean to…" I tried, then stopped. "Forget it." I changed my mind. "Why are you laughing anyways? Nothing's that funny right now."

He just laughed even more. It sounded kind of musical, like Amu and Yaya and Utau's laughing, but also… different. They sounded like a rhythm to a really good song. I don't know what made me think of that, but it did.

"I'm laughing because _you're_ funny! In a good way, of course." He said, wiping tears away. What a girly-boy. That thought made me giggle.

He grinned at me. "What's your name?"

I glared slightly at him. I was a bit suspicious. What if he was a pirate too? Or a killer, or something else that was bad? I could easily kill him now, yet something was stopping me…

"Why are you being so nice to me?" I frowned at him.

He looked surprised. "Why shouldn't I?"

"You have something up your sleeve, I know it."

He gave me a confused look. "Up my sleeve…? All I know is that I got separated from my friends on this island, and I can't find them. When I saw your fire, I came here as fast as possible because I thought it might have been them."

Hm, it did sound a bit like my situation. But I didn't tell him because I couldn't trust him that easily.

I sort of invited him to have dinner with me, seeing that he was lost and pretty much hopeless here. I learned that he couldn't light a fire, didn't know how to find food and water, hated roughing it and couldn't kill anything.

"Girly-boy, what type of person are you? How do your survive in the real world?" I asked him, poking the fire with the poker stick.

He raised an eyebrow. "Girly boy…?" He mumbled, but sort of chuckled. I just insulted him, WHY WAS HE LAUGHING? "I don't know, the harmless, weak but smart kind?" He said in fits of laughter.

He was getting on my nerves.

"DAMN IT!" I yelled at him which made him stop and look at me with wide eyes. "Why are you so nice and happy with me? What's wrong with you? Don't you get anything at all in this situation? Look!" I pulled out my swords and struck a medium sized tree behind me. It sliced like butter and toppled over, sending a loud crashing sound through the forest and birds far away took to the skys. He paled. _Now_ we were getting somewhere. Then in a few seconds, that stupid smile came back.

"Cool…" he said. I wanted to rip all of his purple hair out of his skull.

I gave a frustrated yell into the sky and threw the swords in my hands on the ground. "Stupid, stupid, stupid! I'm cursed. I'm fucking going to die on a kami-for-saken island with an IDIOT!" I wanted to throw myself into a pit.

"Hey…" I felt warm hands around my shoulder and jumped a bit, but the warm arms didn't leave.

"W-what are y-you doing?" I stared in front of me while he coiled his arms around my chest from behind. My heart started to beat a million times a second even though I had no idea why. I wanted to kick this guy in the soft spot, but my body wasn't listening to my brain. I felt his chest start to touch my back and I tensed. I've never been so close to a boy before. His warmth swallowed me into an enormous hug. His scent smelled nice and comforted me a little. Then he broke away.

"Relaxed now?" He grinned. I began to get red in the face again.

"Sh-shut up, girly-boy."

He chuckled. "I have a name, you know." He stuck out his hand. "My name's Fujisaki Nagihiko."

* * *

**Piggy-chan: Oh there is so going to have fluff...**

**Rima: I thought I was going to kill him! I demand DEATH!**

**Nagihiko: I demand love!**

**El: AS DO I!**

**Piggy-chan: Yes, lots of wuv!**

**Rima: NO! *tackles to the ground***

**Piggy-chan: OKAY! You win... *runs away a bit* NOT!**

**Nagihiko: Please review! Oh and so many things are going to happen...**

_-NW_ :3


	4. Nagihiko: Journey To Dreamland

**Piggy-chan: Um... so, how is everyone?**

**Rima: Where... have... you..._ BEEN? _**

**Piggy-chan: Heheheh, uh, high school?**

**Rima: YOU IDIOT!**

**Piggy-chan: MERCY! No one warned me high school would be so demanding! Okay, maybe I was, but I wasn't really expecting it!**

**Rima: You're so stupid.**

**Piggy-chan: I know, I'm sorry. You guys can go ahead and take it out on me. My teachers at my high school are insane and I have to wake up at six and get home at five because it's far and it's a really good school. I'm learning how to write like a writer... or something. And I only started my first year!**

**Rima: As long as you update.**

**Piggy-chan: I promise to try :D**

**Rima: She doesn't own anything here.**

**Piggy-chan: Nope, enjoy!**

-NW _:3_

* * *

**'H' Is For Heaven, Hell and Half-Breeds**

Chapter Four

Nagihiko: Journey To Dreamland

* * *

Okay, so getting separated from my friends was a bad thing, but meeting this girl was the entire positive in the situation. She had long, caramel coloured hair falling over her shoulders and back like a waterfall and honey, golden eyes. Poetic, much? She was pretty short, but that's what made her cute.

Okay, I can't believe I just said that. But, I have to admit, it's true, she was adorable and dangerous at the same time. How? I have no idea, but if there was a definition for this meaning, her picture would be stamped on the book. She was really aggressive too, like the way she got frustrated with me when she got mad at my fun and the way she sliced the tree into toothpicks. She seemed a bit of a sadist too, the way she had this creepy smile when my facial expressions went completely blank with fear.

She was downright scary, and also mean, but I guess that's what made her interesting. Girls back in Concordia would just stand around and look pretty while giggling and batting their long eyelashes at random guys. They were total fakes, and were false and sometimes, not most of the time but sometimes, manipulative. They wore a fluffy, cute outer-character and easily let guys get infatuated with themselves, their bodies, their way of talking and sweet words.

This girl didn't even need to hide what she wanted. She was straight and forward with every word and completely protective of herself. Plus, she was an outdoor person, unlike the girls at school who would squeal when they got a new outfit or wail when they stepped in a mud puddle with their new shoes. Though she wasn't very bright in directions (and days of the week for that matter) she was still way better than the females back home.

"So," I said in the silence. "Where are you from?" Trying to be friendly and approachable, but she was still suspicious of me as if I might grab a knife and stab her.

"Far, far away." She replied while nibbling her food.

"How far?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

Okay, never ask about Geography from her. "Well, do you come from a village or a town, or a community around here?"

"You really are an idiot!" She yelled at me. "Where do you think I am from?"

"Well," I said, thinking logically. "You hunt pretty well, you're good at surviving in the woods, you look pretty experienced, so I'd have to say you're from a hunting clan or something."

She got this murderous look in her eyes. "You think I'm from a _hunting clan_?"

Uh oh. Apparently, she didn't like logical thinking "N-no, I'm just saying that it might be a possibility since you're not telling me—"

Before I finished, the girl pounced on me and started to strangle my neck.

"You stupid purple-head!" She shrieked. "I'm not a freaking cave girl!"

I managed to get her off, but for someone her size she was really strong.

"I'm not implying that you are a Neanderthal—"

"A_ what_?"

"Cave person, whatever. I guess it's because I'm not used to outdoor people, I live in a city. Really, a boarding school, but it's only for school and studies so we can help in the war."

I half expected her to ask me 'What war?' or something close to that question, but she was quiet and stared intently at the fire and poked the wood with a stick now and again.

"Yeah, me too." She said after a while.

"Is there a city around here?" I asked her.

She gave me that 'Shut-it-or-I'll-make-you' look. "No…" she seethed. "I got marooned here."

"Oh," I said, now understanding her situation. "So, where are you from?" It felt like we were going in a big circle, going back to the previous question.

"Far, far away." She replied again.

I scotched closer to her, which she didn't seem to mind, or just didn't care. I placed a hand on her shoulder and she jumped a bit but kept staring at the fire. "It's okay," I told her in a soothing voice. "You can trust me, I won't tell anyone."

"Yeah, besides the fact no one else is here." She muttered. "But you have to tell me first."

"Fine," I replied, chuckling. "My name is Nagihiko Fujisaki, basketball captain, science and geography expert, Concordian citizen," I hesitated, then added "Secret dancer." I included my darkest secret, so she would understand how honest and truthful I was being. Hoping I could get it through to her I was not her enemy.

Even so, she was suddenly quiet and her pretty eyes were closed.

"I am Rima Mashiro," she said at last, "Swords expert, Ice Queen, um… and something else. I forgot. Discordian citizen." She told me and glanced at my totally pale face.

I wasn't all that surprised, once I let the news sink in, after all, it would explain her behavior. I was fine with it, but the problem was; was Rima fine with it? And I got nervous, the way Rima's fingers were itching towards the swords beside her, I had to do something, and fast.

"W-wait, how about we make a deal?"

"What sort of deal?" She asked, eyeing me carefully and her fingers still twitching.

"We can help each other out, just until we find our friends, and then we can go our separate ways. No one needs to die."

"Are you saying you can kill me?" Rima said, her eyes narrowing. Whoa, this is not getting good…

"No," I said, "But if you kill me here and now, you won't be able to find your way around. I've been following the stars to get here, and I've already marked a few places so I know where I'm going."

Knowing what I said could be a very dangerous answer; she shot another deadly look at me then sighed. "Guess I can't do anything about it."

I wanted to let her know she was making a good decision, to tell her I wasn't going to be a burden, so I told her, "I made a map."

I thought that would let some of her grief out, make her feel better, but her intelligent answer came; "What?"

"A map," I repeated.

"What's that?"

Wow, wasn't expecting that. "It's like a guide that can locate places through a bird's-eye-of-view and establish land marks so you have the knowledge of where you're going."

"Okay, sure. Why not? But how can you have a guide if you're alone?"

I shook my head. "It's a piece of paper."

"Wait, so you have a _living piece of paper_?"

I felt like shaking this girl by her shoulders. "No, the information is _printed_ on a wide piece of paper with colour and markings of different things, such as directions; North, South, East and West. People use it so they won't get lost."

"Wow, your people sound smart. Do they get lost easily?"

I clenched my hands into fists. "No, I mean people in _general_ use the map so it can guide them from one location to another. And no, Concordians have a very good sense of direction and don't get lost, thank you very much." I almost snapped.

I thought I heard her mutter, "Yeah right. Sure they do," but it was so quiet I don't know if she really said it.

Just then, she yawned loudly and rubbed one of her eyes with a fist. "Well, I'm going to sleep." She drowned the fire out with dirty water and began to walk away. "You can have the cave." She added.

"Me?" I asked her. "What about you?"

"I'm sleeping in the trees," she said furrowing her eyebrows. "Unless _you_ want to…"

"Uh, I'm fine." I said nervously. Falling out of a tree and breaking something was the last thing I wanted to do. "But why don't you want to sleep in the cave? I mean, that was the entire point of finding one, and I think it's big enough for both of us."

"I don't want to sleep in the same cave as a girly-boy." She spat. Ouch. That was offending, but I didn't say anything. I had a feeling she was just saying that to get an emotional response from me. I just shrugged and pulled a sleeping bag out of my knapsack.

I spread it over the dirt floor of the cave and slipped in, immediately greeted by the warm, soft cushioning of the water-proof blankets and laid my head down. I closed my eyes for what seemed like ages, when I heard a soft padding into the cave. Opening only one eye, squinting in the moonlight, I made out a huddled shape in the corner of the cave. At first, I thought Rima was going to murder me, just waiting for me to doze off into dreamland, but in a few short seconds, heavy breathing drifted from her corner and I knew she had fallen sound asleep. Feeling a little guilty, considering the fact it wasn't very manly to sleep in a sleeping bag while making a woman sleep in the cold, I got out of the sack and crawled over to Rima. She must have had problems waking up in the morning, because I think they would need a fire truck to wake up this girl. She slept like a rock. I carefully lifted her up and carried her over to the sleeping bag, placing her head down with care and crawled back to her spot to get some sleep myself. Sleep I needed from this crazily, infected and dangerous day.

Then I had nightmare about my friends.

* * *

"Nagihiko," Kukai said. His eyes flickering on the boat and to the sea, back and forth. "Nagihiko."

"What?" I asked, pulling a string of purple hair, making my scalp hurt.

"The waves," he said, pointing to the ocean. "Over there. It looks like it's getting darker."

I looked over the horizon. Sure enough, the area there was dark as Ikuto's hair. A mysterious fog of mid-night blue darkened whatever was beyond.

"That's the sky," I corrected. But I couldn't help feel a small pang in my stomach.

"Oh, right." He said, squinting and smiling. "Weird, the sky and the water almost looks joined together."

I agreed. We were pretty lucky to have clear skies here, and whoever was trapped in that storm I felt sorry for.

"It looks like a typhoon," Kairi said, pushing his glasses up. "I read once that typhoons can—"

"Yeah, yeah," Ikuto cut in, rubbing the emerald-haired boy roughly on the head. "We know."

"But it's always good to know things, Ikuto," Tadase informed him. "We're going to have to do a lot of learning from now on. Especially since we're on our own."

Ikuto raised an eyebrow and said, "Sure. Whatever you say, kiddy-king."

Tadase fumed. His ruby-red eyes began to darken and his expression changed from the good little kid, to the evil king. "I said… don't call me that!" He yelled and I almost jumped back in alarm.

"Y-you guys," I said, trying to separate them. "Calm down, we can't…"

Suddenly, I heard deep growling behind me. I shifted from one foot to another. I felt warm breathing on the back of my neck, the hairs standing straight up like a parking meter. A slight shiver like the cold snake Ikuto put in my shirt on April fool's day once, slithered down my spine and a heavy shadow almost rested on my shoulder.

I didn't turn. I was too scared out of my wits. I stayed paralyzed on the spot. The musty floor boards began to slip from my feet and slippery, damp grass started to grow out of the dirt, like someone had pressed fast forward on the remote to an environmental documentary. I stared as the grass began to grow through my toes and past my ankles. I didn't even remember taking off my shoes. I didn't even realize I was wearing a backpack.

"Nagihiko!" Someone screamed my name. "RUN!" But I didn't. I was petrified. I probably wasn't any more alive than a statue. Everyone was gone. I was alone.

"Nagihiko!" The breathing got deeper, harder, like panting and I felt grimy, gooey wet liquid fall on my shoulders. It stung my skin and ached to my very bones. I wanted to scream as the acid ate away the rawness of my flesh. But there was only more and more. It covered my shoulders and dripped down my arms. I screamed.

"NO!" And then it all stopped. The pain grew fainter and my feet felt too weak to keep the wait of my body up. My arms still stung, but it was better than before. I clutched onto a tree and turned myself around. There, I saw a tiger and crane attacking something disgusting. It had a black shinny shell, like a cockroach, but smeared with oily black substance that burned the ground whenever it dripped, killing the plants and grass underneath.

"Nagihiko, run!" The tiger shouted. It's blue-ish purple fur batting the black acid monster and swatting the thing away without touching it.

"For a Half-Breed, the dream world is as real as the real world!" The crane cried harshly and clawed and snapped it's beak at our attacker. She flew so fast, she was only a blur of purple in the sky.

"Wake up!" They yelled. And then their appearances began to shimmer.

"Temari!" I cried, tears swelling my eyes. "Rhythm!"

"Nagihiko!" I felt someone shaking my shoulders, even though they throbbed. I turned to see Rima. She looked pretty and glowed in the grass despite the situation. Her eyes narrowed and she demanded, "Wake up."

My eyes snapped open and I bolted upright.

"God damn-it, Nagihiko, is it always this hard to wake you up?"

I stared at Rima, sitting on her knees in front of me. Her eyes narrowed like the last time I had seen her, her body glowing in the sunlight as it bounced off her curls and curved around her perfect face.

"Uh," I said, really smart. "Did you wake me up?"

"Yeah, about one… nine, thirteen… five times."

"That's not how you count, Rima."

"Forget it!" She snapped and stared at me strangely. "Why is your shoulder red?"

"Huh?" Then the pain caught me at the wrong moment and I gasped out sharply as the pain shot out like an arrow. I ripped my jacket open, finding that my white dress-shirt and vest was an intense crimson red. I pulled the vest off and started to unbutton the shirt when I noticed Rima's cheeks were turning a pink-ish colour.

"Don't strip in front of me, okay?" She muttered.

"I never invited you," I retorted and slipped the shirt off to see swelling on my shoulders and arms. Some parts were burned and some were still bleeding. Swollen flesh turned upwards and swamped my pale arms with a new wash of red.

And for those very rare times in my life, I swore.

"Shit."

* * *

**Nagihiko: Whoa O.o I swore...**

**Piggy-chan: Uhuh. Sorry, it was short and I needed a good ending.**

**Nagihiko: And ending the story with a swear word would solve your problem?**

**Piggy-chan: No, but I couldn't think of anything else! I always (almost) end my chappies with cliffies!**

**Rima: Ugh, whatever. Make him bleed to death, okay?**

**Piggy-chan: No.**

**Rima: Why not?**

**Nagihiko: Cuz she favors me more XP**

**Piggy-chan: I actually like Rima more, cuz she's cool, but I won't kill you for the sake of the future romance.**

**Rima&Nagihiko: _WHAT?_**

**Piggy-chan: Bye for now :D**

_-NW_ :3


End file.
